A musical journey through history and generations

For decades, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53) has been depicted in films, television dramas, and stage productions.

Yet for director, composer, and playwright Fan Chong, it had never been fully explored through musical theater, and he decided to take on the challenge.

A year ago, the musical, titled Finding Li Ergou, premiered in Beijing, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the war.

Since its premiere, the musical has toured extensively across China, staging nearly 80 performances. The ongoing nationwide tour brings the musical to more Chinese cities, including Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Shenzhen and Guangzhou in Guangdong province, and Qingdao in Shandong province, allowing the production to complete its milestone 90th performance this summer.

The story follows modern-day protagonist Chang Weiguo, who travels back to the battlefield of 1950 with a fragmented memoir left behind by his grandfather. Fighting alongside his 17-year-old grandfather in the war, Chang embarks on a journey to find the mysterious soldier named Li Ergou, only to discover that the search is ultimately about understanding the sacrifices and ideals of an entire generation.

Fan says that the inspiration for the musical traces back to childhood. As early as 2020, Fan wrote a question in his notebook: "What if I had personally experienced that war?"

That question later became the creative spark behind Finding Li Ergou. After five years of preparation, he finally transformed the idea into China's first musical centered on the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.

"Perhaps it was the war films I watched as a child that planted the seed," he says. "'What if I had experienced that war' achieves a dialogue across generations. In the theater of peace, young audiences can feel the warmth of history through empathy, while the older generation witnesses the inheritance of faith reflected in the tears of today's youth."

Fan's vision for the musical is original: rather than recounting the war from the sweeping, epic perspectives common in films, the story begins with a contemporary young person.

The central premise asks a bold question: "If a modern young adult experienced the war firsthand, how would it change them, and how would they relate to their future?"

The production's journey from concept to stage has been marked by inventive theatrical solutions, according to the director.

"We couldn't replicate large-scale explosions or battle scenes on stage," Fan says. Instead, the team embraced a minimalist, expressive approach. With just 12 actors, the presence of opposing forces is suggested through simple props — a helmet, a pipe — and music is used in montage sequences to maintain narrative momentum.

War stories in Chinese musical theater are rare enough that actor Gao Yang, who plays the role of Chang Weiguo, initially approached the idea with caution. But when Fan described his long-held ambition to create a war-themed musical — a script he had been shaping for years — curiosity quickly replaced hesitation.